We liked Nanning - walking along the river, through what remains of the old section which is not much. Seems the “old” China is being completely obliterated. Complicated I know – people are entitled to live in decent safe housing with sanitation but at the cost of destroying villages and communities…..glad it’s not my problem. One day chanced upon a large park with about 1000 people broken into small groups with singing (karaoke style), playing mah-jong, cards, dancing etc. Fantastic, so there is some community left.
Some China...

All our plans started with us going through Vietnam (with a hint of Cambodia), onwards through west coast China and into Japan.
However, we liked Vietnam enough to extend our plans and stay a little longer. This has put a little stress on China and Japan we have booked a boat already. This has left with not much time to see anything in China, so what we decided was to head straight to Shanghai in the hope that the one week we have in China is well spent.
We got our ticket in Hanoi to head to Nanning, the hub between China and Vietnam. A...

Arrived in Nanning at around 6.30am in the morning. Waited or the platform to clear and met back up again with Angie. Who began by complaining about people talking in the corridor outside her bedroom, needless to say very little sympathy was forthcoming. We went straight to the ticket office to buy tickets for Hanoi and managed to get soft sleepers, thank goodness.
We spent the morning walking around Peoples Park a very picturesque setting in the middle of this busy city. We sat by the large lake there, chilling, killing time and...

Had a great day here. Thoughts: Getting out of China too soon as it is starting to sink in how great the people are here.
If we would have known how hard it was going to be we would not have come. Now that we've been here we would come back in an instant.
Big Macs:
Nickie brow beat me into going to MacDonalds for lunch, she said I owed it to her as I ate at MacDonalds in Tokyo. My defense is that I had heard that in Tokyo they have to use Kobe beef as Tokyoites would not accept inferior quality meat. I was merely doing research to affirm...

As I write this I am laying on the middle bunk, left side of a six compartment sleeper train from Guangzhou to Nanning, China. Nickie is opposite me, napping. The upper 2 bunks are empty so far and the lower 2 are occupied by an older gentleman and I believe, his son (about 40). They are eating boiled peanuts and other great smelling food, Nickie and I have apples and bananas and bottled water, we know how to party. They seem like real nice folks and the distinguished older gentleman tried to strike up a conversation but unfortunately the...

We boarded a nice A/C bus in Hanoi en route to Nanning, China. The landscape as we neared the Vietnam border with China was spectacular. We enjoyed views of huge, rolling green hills and towering limestone cliffs.
The Friendship Pass border crossing was modern and clean. Exiting Vietnam involved shoving ourselves through a surge of people to the official manning the exit point. As we have mentioned in other blogs, orderly queuing does not seem to exist in Asia. After clearing the exit point, there was a large golf cart waiting to transport...

We finally left Vietnam yesterday and jumped on a long-distance bus into China. Not too bad, only about 7 hours. When we arrived at the Chinese border, we noticed that the security here is pretty tough! There were at least 7 security checkpoints, and even though we both had visas, they almost didn't let me into the country! :) Bryan would have had to go on by himself! But they finally decided that I wasn't a threat to the country, and they let me through.
After crossing the border, the drive through China was beautiful. Huge limestone...

Our train deposited us, somewhat sleep deprived, back in Hanoi at 5am. What a different city without the millions of scooters buzzing about. We headed back to our previous hotel in the Old Quarter and negotiated use of a room for a couple of hours before heading off to the bus station to catch our bus through to Nanning in China. It was packed with Asian men and no other white faces in sight.
I had suffered some motion sickness on the train back from Lao Cai and so popped a couple of Phenergans before getting on the bus as a safety...

We arrived into Nanning at 4.30am and found a hotel with a room for AU$10.00 for the 3 of us (yay!) and had a bit of a nap. Finally we got our passports in for our Vietnamese visas and had a chance to explore Nanning a bit. It's a much nicer town that Guangzhou with wide streets and parks and cheap street food. Actually I think Nanning is the cheapest place we have stayed so far! It only cost us $15.00 one day and $25.00 the next day with coffee! And it's such a charismatic town! Out on our walks we passed farmers coming into town on their...

Hello everyone...we love reading your messages so keep them coming, unfortunately we cannot upload any photos in China. We have lots and lots of good ones to add, so fingers crossed for Vietnam.
Our flying visit to China comes to an end on Friday when we head to Vietnam, however, we have loved it and it's only wetted our appetite for more chinese adventures at some point in the future.
Guangzhou was a really cool place and especially so due to the New Year celebrations. There was fireworks, partying until the early hours and Dim Sum eating...